SynthesisCognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience2021
Unveiling the neural underpinnings of optimism: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mental association of time and valence revealed with a novel chronometric approach: The positive-future effect.Memory & cognition · 2025Article
- From perception to projection: Exploring neuroaffective advances in understanding optimism bias and belief updating.Current opinion in psychology · 2024Review
- Psychometric Properties of a New Mexican Optimism Scale: Ethnopsychological Approach.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2023Article
- Wellbeing and brain structure: A comprehensive phenotypic and genetic study of image-derived phenotypes in the UK Biobank.Human brain mapping · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Optimism is a personality trait strongly associated with physical and psychological well-being, with correlates in nonhuman species. Optimistic individuals hold positive expectancies for their future, have better physical and psychological health, recover faster after heart disease and other ailments, and cope more effectively with stress and anxiety. We performed a systematic review of neuroimaging studies focusing on neural correlates of optimism. A search identified 14 papers eligible for inclusion. Two key brain areas were linked to optimism: the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), involved in imagining the future and processing of self-referential information; and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), involved in response inhibition and processing relevant cues. ACC activity was positively correlated with trait optimism and with the probability estimations of future positive events. Behavioral measures of optimistic tendencies investigated through the belief update task correlated positively with IFG activity. Elucidating the neural underpinnings of optimism may inform both the development of prevention and treatment strategies for several mental disorders negatively associated with optimism, such as depression, as well as help to foster new resilience promotion interventions targeting healthy, vulnerable, and mentally ill individuals.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.